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State Board Proposes 5 Percent Tuition Increase

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 August 2005, 15:00 CDT

Aug. 17--TALLAHASSEE -- It's "realistic" to the head of the state Board of Education. It's "another burden" to a student writing the check.

Either way, state school officials are proposing yet another tuition increase for Florida college students.

Under a $19.3 billion education spending proposal for the 2006-07 school year unveiled Tuesday, undergraduate resident tuition would climb another 5 percent at the state's 11 public universities.

That would come after a 5 percent increase approved by the state Legislature for the current school year. Gov. Jeb Bush initially called for 7.5 percent. The increase next year could change as first Bush and then each chamber of the Legislature write their own state budget proposals in the spring.

Annual tuition increases are annoying but inevitable, said Maxon Victor, student president at the University of South Florida.

"It's no surprise," Victor said. "To the common student, it's another burden and another stress. I'll never be supportive of it."

Tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students at USF's Tampa campus total $107.88 per credit hour. The typical full-time student takes 12 to 15 credit hours a semester, which will cost $1,294.56 or $1,618.20, respectively, this fall.

A 5 percent tuition increase would boost that per-semester tab to about $1,360 and $1,700, respectively, in 2006-07.

Even with the increase, undergraduate tuition for Florida residents at the state's public universities will remain among the most affordable in the country.

Resident undergraduate tuition and fees averaged $5,143 for a full year at the nation's public four-year colleges and universities in 2004-05, according to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. That was up an average of 10.6 percent from the year before.

In Florida, however, in-state tuition and fees for a full year at the state's public universities averaged $3,048, according to the association, which was 40 percent less than the national average.

State board Chairman Phil Handy said a 5 percent tuition increase is "realistic."

"Surely that's been the public policy for the state of Florida, to try to make higher education affordable," Handy said. "We're continuing to do that."

Too steep a tuition increase could mean the state's public K-12 schools would see a shrinking pool of state lottery dollars.

The state's popular Bright Futures scholarship program, which pays as much as 100 percent of tuition and fees for students with good high school grades and SAT scores, is funded by revenue from the Florida Lottery.

A tuition increase means more lottery dollars would be needed to pay for college scholarships, leaving less lottery money for K-12 schools.

The universities' individual boards of trustees will set tuition for out-of-state and graduate students under the Board of Education proposal.

Community college students, meanwhile, would bear a 1.8 percent tuition increase under the plan.

Overall, the state board's spending plan, which bankrolls everything from the new prekindergarten program through postsecondary education in Florida, is an 8.5 percent increase from the $17.8 billion appropriated by the state Legislature for the school year under way this month.

The proposal reflects continuing administrative angst over the class-size limits voters demanded in 2002.

The budget proposed Tuesday seeks $2.1 billion for K-12 class-size reduction, an increase of 39 percent from the current year.

In stages, schools must cap class sizes at 18 students in prekindergarten through third grade, 22 students in fourth through eighth grades, and 25 students in ninth through 12th grades by 2010.

Bush opposed the constitutional amendment, but an effort in the spring legislative session to soften the requirements failed.

The class-size mandate is the "budget Pac-Man," said John Winn, commissioner of education and a Bush appointee.

By Jerome R. Stockfisch and Gary Haber. Reporter Marilyn Brown contributed to this report.

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Source: Tampa Tribune

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